1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to automated manufacturing systems, and more particularly to a multiple line transfer machine and system which automatically performs a series of marking, cutting, sorting and the like operations in the manufacture of a large number of test material samples.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is conventional in the making a material testing samples to perform the following steps:
1. MAKING A MATERIAL TEST ELEMENT FROM A MATRIX PLATE BY SHEARING OR GAS CUTTING AND MARKING A DISCRIMINATION NUMBER, SUCH AS A PLATE NUMBER, ON THE TEST ELEMENT,
2. VERIFYING THE ELEMENT WITH A PATTERN BOOK AND MARKING CUTTING LINES ON THE ELEMENT AS DIRECTED IN THE BOOK TO CUT THE ELEMENT INTO THE PREDETERMINED SIZE OF TEST PIECES,
3. MARKING PLATE NUMBERS ON EVERY TEST PIECE OF THE ELEMENT WITH THE MARKING OF LINES FOR CUTTING,
4. GAS CUTTING THE ELEMENT MARKED WITH LINES AND PLATE NUMBERS INTO THE TEST PIECES, AND
5. SORTING THE TEST PIECES CUT FROM MATERIAL TEST ELEMENTS INTO CLASSES.
These steps have all been performed manually, and accordingly a great deal of labor has been necessitated to make a large number of test pieces for mass production.